Pulmonary Core Curriculum

One of the ways in which the ATS seeks to accomplish the educational component of its mission is by sponsoring a variety of high-quality clinical and scientific programs. ATS members and those familiar with the Society’s activities are probably most familiar with the sessions, workshops and postgraduate courses offered at the annual ATS International Conference, which have been the foci of the organization’s efforts to foster interactive learning and scientific advancement.

WHAT IS THE PULMONARY CORE CURRICULUM?

At ATS 2012, the Society will take its educational program one step further. After coordinating and assessing existing activities from a strategic perspective, the ATS has established a Pulmonary Core Curriculum that demonstrates the ways in which the International Conference fulfills clinician learners’ core needs in the following content categories:

Working closely with David Au, MD, chair of the 2012 ATS International Conference Committee, the Education Committee has already prepared a Core Curriculum that mimics the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) in-service exam medical content categories.

The program committees of the Society’s 13 assemblies identified which parts of the program will be considered core courses, selections that were later assessed and approved by the ATS Core Curriculum Working Group.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The ATS has developed 25 questions based on the sessions that were selected to be part of the Core Curriculum and submitted them to the ABIM. Please visit the ATS Web site (http://conference.thoracic.org/2012/) for regular updates about this initiative.